lordairgtar

Buying Chinese made goods is offensive

Not flaming anyone here, but your synopsis of the crusades are a bit off and leaves a lot out. The original intent of the crusading knights were to protect pilgrims going to the holy land from bandits ( the Church asked countries to provide men for this) and then the Muslim raiders who were increasing their territory throughout northern Africa and into Spain. The part of your paragraph (which is true, BTW) deals with what happened when greed and avarice entered the picture and they started to go after who they perceived as heretics and enemies of the Church. Does the Spanish Inquisition ring a bell? This is where Torquemada came from. (You couldn't Torquemada anything )

Send some of that 86 degrees over here.

http://www.elomnibus.com/images/carsbig/20...es_hs170big.jpg Look at this. Could this be the birth of the KdF wagen?

Here's something I picked up off an Audi web site. There was a Mercedes that had a similar look. volkswagen Literally, the word "volkswagen" means "people's car." In Germany, the idea of a people's car wasn't exactly a new one. Before the 1930's, there had been many efforts to create simple cars that everyone could afford, but none met with profound success. Almost all cars before 1930, even if they were designed to be simple enough for the average person, ended up costing more than the average worker's yearly wage. Ferdinand Porsche Meanwhile, the year is 1930, and Ferdinand Porsche had just set up an automotive design company, which became known as the Porsche Büro. The company patented a sophisticated independent front suspension system, which consisted of transversely mounted torsion bars connected to two trailing arms on each side. At the time, this was lighter than most other common types of suspension. In 1931, a German motorcycle company, Zündapp, asked Porsche if he could design a suitable car for them. Porsche came up with a streamlined 2 door sedan, which had lines similar to the Beetle. It was designated the Type 12. Zündapp wanted to put in a 1.2 liter radial engine from one of their motorcycles...this was the end of the line for this design, as it didn't make it any further. Porsche then designed a car for NSU in 1933 that was known as the Type 32. This car looked even more similar to the upcoming KdF Wagen than the Type 12 did. This car looked similar to the Tatra V570, and shared many mechanical similarities. After World War II, the Volkswagen company paid Tatra for compensation, since Tatra believed its technology and design was pirated in development of the KdF Wagen. Eventaully, NSU dropped the Type 32 project. Later in 1933, Adolf Hitler met with Ferdinand Porsche to discuss Hitler's idea of a volkswagen. Hitler proposed a people's car that could carry 5 people, cruise up to 62mph, return 33mpg, and cost only 1000 Reich Marks. This was an opportunity for Porsche to push his idea of a small car foward, as was it to help Hitler get a real people's car for the citizens of Germany. Initially, Porsche designated this design the Type 60, but it was soon changed to the V1 (experimental 1). Hitler also proposed to have a convertible version produced: it was designated V2. Porsche was not able to make the deadline to finish the first two prototypes, as there was not enough time to physically design the cars and to built them. In any case, they were completed and driving by 1935. Soon, the V1 design was updated, and three cars were produced. This new design was the VW3. These cars were put through rigorous testing in 1936. These cars looked very similar to the KdF Wagen, that was to appear later. Eventually, the VW3s had metal floors, swing axle rear transmissions, Porsche's front independed suspensions, and backbone floorpans. Several engines were tested, and eventually a flat four cylinder aircooled four stroke engine was chosen. Surprisingly, the engine that was chosen was cheaper and more reliable than some of the four cylinder two stroke engines that were tested. This 22.5 hp four cylinder "boxer" engine was roughly the same as the engines that would later be incorporated into Volkswagen Beetles that are still produced today. VW30 in 1937 After data was collected from the tests of the VW3s, the next version, the VW30 was created, and in all, 30 were produced. Due to Hitler's regime, control of the company and testing of the VW30 was given to a government organization called the DAF. Now, members of the SS were required to drive the VW30s to confirm that all the problems of the V3s were fixed. For the most part, these tests showed that most of the problems in earlier cars had been fixed. VW30 In 1938, construction began on the KdF Wagen factory, and on the town that was going to be next to the factory. In 1939, several VW38s (pre-production) and VW39s (demonstration cars) were produced just to show that the factory did work, and to show what the final version of the car would look like. These cars were different from their predecessors in that they had front hinged doors (all the VW designs before had "suicide" doors), split windows in the rear, larger hoods, and many other minor differences. This edition of the car was the basis of the Beetle after the war was over. Introduction of VW38s When the V38s were introduced, Hitler abruptly changed the name of the car to KdF Wagen. KdF stood for "Kraft durch Freude" which meant "Strength through Joy." This upset Porsche, as he was not a member of the Nazi party, and he didn't support Hitler's use of propaganda when advertising the car.

If the kit seems daunting, you might try and put the "46" specific parts on the Revell. I have two of the older kits, one Testor's and one IMC. Both are convertibles. I do certainly remember building them as a kid, and I really want to attempt the IMC one this year.

Wow, I'm in the presence of smart people. I feel really stupid now.

That is one fine kit you have there, evilone. Just be mindful of the bumper brackets...they are very fragile.

The same with The Nashville Network. They used to have neat shows all car related on the weekends. They changed it to Spike and it's all truck stuff. They used to show My Classic Car, but that went somewhere else. When Speed quit showing the different racing and went to mostly Nascar, I quit subscribing to the sports package it was in which cost me extra.

That's really nice. It looks like a shop truck heading back with a nicely rebuilt inline six for another project.

Wow, my old builds no longer exist. It's great you have that. Yes, I would just leave it be, but repair the wheels and clean it a little.

Nice looking model there, evilone! I love the trailer and nitrous bottles in the bed.

I am so buying this one. I need to make some Novas! Looking to do an Apollo. I saw one with a 350 Buick engine in it, so cool.

Need to find me one of those JoHan Cudas!!

Hmmmm, good idea!

Nice work you have there. From the cold great white north to Asia! What country are you going to? hope to see more of your work.

Great engine, I can see lots of possibilities for that one. Are you related to Dennis Kitchen, an underground cartoonist from the sixties and seventies?

Who produced that kit?

Both you guys did an awesome job, and I ain't afraid of no triple 6. Just a number. I knew people who would return a plate to the DMV because it would have that number on it.

Sorry to hear that. I wouldn't have put up with that charity scam. I 'da kicked him in the you know whats! But sometimes it's better to let stuff like that go. If there were a bunch of people there, I would have made a huge scene (done that)

I've not sold kits at a rummage or garage sale, but I've thought of it. I buy kits at sales when they turn up (rare) and I get them fairly cheap, about $3 per kit or less.

Those Hawaiians are a laid back bunch. This might be fast for them.

I saw Gary today, he's looking good. Just a bit greyer

I'm going to the Milwaukee NNL today. West Coast is to far.

OK, Maybe Dr. Hawkings was not my most brilliant comparison (and yes, he is still alive, my bad). All through history and in different cultures, the poor have always had more children as they felt that children were their legacy, so to speak. Are IQs really going down, or is it just our schools don't do the job? If IQs were indeed dropping, then please explain people that still have high IQs? Where did Korn get their data? Did they research this themselves? There is so much stuff available to read on line and elsewhere that is specious at best. Who is to know what was spun and what is true? The rest of the world has hated the US long before Bush came into office and he is not the reason gas prices are so high. That is strictly supply and demand, futures speculation, environmental issues like break downs and weather, and just plain greed. What makes you believe that we are entitled to cheap gasoline when the rest of the world pays much more than us. That's pretty arrogant. If any political entity has any control over gas prices, it would be the House and Senate, the actual policy makers, not the president. I have known many people who have immense talent or intelligence but you just cringe at hearing them speak for one reason or another. I had teachers like that. Yes, I cringe too when I hear Bush speak. I know engineers from the various companies we deal with who can devise a machine or tool, but couldn't speak to sell the idea.